Joyeux Noel Parent Guide

World War I, the “war to end all wars”, lasted for four years and resulted in approximately 20 million deaths. It seems impossible to imagine a heartwarming Christmas movie coming from this death and destruction, but Joyeux Noel (French for “Merry Christmas”) is such a film.

The movie begins ominously, with schoolboys from France, Germany, and England reciting militaristic poetry, calling for the extermination of their nation’s rivals. A few years later, those boys are men, hunkered down in the mud- and blood-filled trenches of the Western front. German Lieutenant Horstmeyer (Daniel Bruhl) is picking on opera singer Nikolaus Sprink (Benno Furmann) who has been transferred to his unit and who he sees as a useless artist. A Scottish priest, Father Palmer (Gary Lewis), is worried about his men, especially young Jonathan (Steven Robertson) who is haunted by his brother’s corpse which lies unburied in No-Man’s-Land. And French Lieutenant Audebert (Guillaume Canet) is wracked with anxiety over his pregnant wife who is living in occupied France. He is desperate to know if she has safely delivered their child. The men are terrified, exhausted, and homesick. Then, on Christmas Eve, Sprink raises his voice in “Silent Night” and a hush falls across the front lines. As Father Palmer’s bagpipes pick up the melody, the men begin to rise from the trenches. And the unofficial truce begins…

Few events in World War I are better known or more highly mythologized than the Christmas truce of 1914. Joyeux Noel is not a rigorously historical tale, although it follows the general outline of the event. Where it shines is in the way it tells the story from multiple perspectives: the French, Scottish, and German soldiers are all treated equally, as human beings trapped in a conflict they did not start and in which they all suffer. This is particularly impressive because this film is a French production: the director resists the temptation to ennoble the French troops and to demonize the German ones. (This multinational perspective comes with one potential drawback – all troops speak in their own languages. Moviegoers who dislike subtitles will find this frustrating.)

The movie’s other downside is its sexual content. There is a completely unnecessary scene of sexual activity between an unmarried couple in which a woman’s back, hip and breast are visible for a few moments. Other content issues are those that would be expected in a war movie. Soldiers, including main characters, are seen smoking and drinking alcohol, although none are shown inebriated. There is also some violence: men are shot and stabbed with bayonets and blood, injuries, and death are seen on the battlefield, in the trenches, and in the hospital. The violence is not glamorized or unnecessarily gory but serves the plot.

Content concerns aside, Joyeux Noel is a moving addition to any collection of Christmas films. There is great power in its messages about the brotherhood of mankind; about the difficulty of hating those we have come to know. As Father Palmer muses about the Christmas Eve service he held between the trenches, “These men were drawn to that altar like it was a fire in the middle of winter. Even those who aren’t devout came to warm themselves. Maybe just to be together. Maye to forget the war.” This film, too, can warm the hearts of those who listen to its message of light and compassion in the midst of death and darkness. After all, isn’t that what Christmas is about?